“Congress is spending like drunken sailors. The investigator general for TARP (the Troubled Asset Relief Program) has stated that it’s possible that the cost to the American taxpayer for all the bailouts, backstops, guarantees, etc. could exceed $23 trillion.”

That picture isn’t too pretty. “We’ve never seen anything like this in our history,” Tice says.

Of course what’s bad for the economy and financial markets is good for gold, and that’s why he likes the precious metal.

Some experts are even more bullish than Tice.

"You could easily see for the next several years that prices rise. . . to $5,000 or beyond, as inflation psychology becomes more and more embedded, and people become desperate to have a source of value," Christopher Wyke of Schroder Investment Management told Bloomberg.

David Tice, famous for his bearish stock trades, is bullish on a different asset: gold.The precious metal recently jumped to a record high above $1,060, and Tice, Federated Investors chief portfolio strategist for bear markets, sees further gains ahead."We certainly could...